Disney Sets Digital and Physical Release Dates for Broadway Cast Album of Aladdin

By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
31 Mar 2014

Adam Jacobs

Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann

The original Broadway cast album of Disney's Aladdin, which stars Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed, will be released by Walt Disney Records May 27, Disney Theatricals announced March 31. The physical album will hit shelves June 17.

The cast is currently laying down tracks in the studio, and the original Broadway cast recording will be produced by Alan Menken, Michael Kosarin, Frank Filipetti and Chris Montan and executive produced by Kurt Deutsch.

The stage production, which expands the 90-minute film into a two-act format, has music by Alan Menken, lyrics by the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and book and additional lyrics by Chad Beguelin. Tony Award-winning director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon) directs and choreographs the musical, which officially opened on Broadway March 20.

Jacobs (Les Misérables, The Lion King) and Reed (In the Heights, Mamma Mia!) starred in the show's Seattle premiere and Toronto engagement. Broadway performances began Feb. 26 at the New Amsterdam Theatre.

Advertisement

James Monroe Iglehart, of Broadway's Memphis, also reprises his performance as the Genie, and Jonathan Freeman, who voiced the nefarious villain Jafar in the 1992 animated Disney film and reprised his performance on stage, again plays that role.

Menken previously told Playbill.com that the stage production incorporates many ideas he and Ashman conceived for the 1992 film that never made it to the screen. Among them are a trio of Aladdin's friends, Omar, Babkak and Kassim, as well as a handful of early songs including "Proud of Your Boy."

Here's how the new musical is billed: "Aladdin, adapted from the Disney film and centuries-old folktales including 'One Thousand and One Nights' is brought to fresh theatrical life in this exuberant new musical. Aladdin's journey will sweep audiences into an exotic world of daring adventure, classic comedy and timeless romance. This new production features a full score, including the five cherished songs from the Academy Award winning soundtrack and more written especially for the stage."

The production team also includes illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer and hair designer Josh Marquette. The music team is headed by music supervisor and music director Michael Kosarin, who also created the vocal and incidental music arrangements, joined by orchestrator Danny Troob and dance music arranger Glen Kelly.